Sunny Hundal's blog

Sunny Hundal (London, Liberal Conspiracy): I have a strong feeling that the government’s plans to extend pre-charge detention to 42 days, which we’ve been running a campaign against, is dead in the water.

There are two reasons for my optimism.

The 42 days vote is the next big vote for the government. Having gotten a bloody nose over the 10p tax, I doubt Brown will risk another one given all the speculation around his leadership. Labour backbench ministers are looking to give Brown a bloody nose anyway and his weakened authority now makes it easier for them.

There is also a chance that New Labour will now look to appeal to its core liberal-left constituency, which has been increasingly disheartened by the party’s authoritarian tendencies of late. It has no one else to appeal to, it certainly isn’t going to appeal to Telegraph voters - why not at least the Guardian ones?